Although I was happy not to have talked myself into a corner on the show there were some things I would have liked to have said differently, explained, or expanded on.
First off, sorry about the bit about asking if you wanted ketchup or relish on your hot dog. I removed my head set and held it away but James’ voice apparently came through even though he was a good ten feet from the microphone.
Sometimes being extremely literal is to my detriment (it also has advantages but that is a different story). When Caleb asked which blog posts I was most proud of I did not include The Jews In The Attic Test because that isn’t a blog post. That is a web page on a different website written long before I had a blog. Caleb didn’t let me get away with not mentioning it however and posted a link to it in the chat room. See also Breda’s post about the other bloggers “greatest hits”.
In the last few seconds of the show Caleb asked what we bloggers would like other bloggers to do differently. I could have spent a minute or two on the topic instead of 15 seconds (or whatever it was). In fact at Gun Blogger Rendezvous II (October 2007) I had asked for an hour for a discussion of that type. Mike said I could bring it up during a particular time slot and when the time came he pressed me pretty hard and I declined to elaborate. I just didn’t have the idea whittled down to it’s essence in a way that would come across as coherent. The basis of my thought is this:
- We all have something that we do well in the blogosphere–most likely because we are passionate about it
- Each of us have a niche that is at least somewhat different from everyone else
- If we can recognize and articulate what it is that we do well and want to accomplish we that will probably enable us to do what we do better
Microsoft used to have the mission statement “A computer on every desk and in every home”. It is now “At Microsoft, our mission and values are to help people and business throughout the world realize their full potential”. I’ve also heard it expressed as “Your potential, our passion.”
I think every blogger should have a mission statement. It doesn’t have to be posted on the banner or part of the name of the blog. It doesn’t even have to be written down. I just has to be something that the blogger refers to when he or she is thinking about when they are working on that “really great post” or when they are searching for something to blog about. “What is my mission here?” should have an answer that can be articulated even if it is done silently and rarely.
I made some suggestions on the show and here they are (perhaps modified a bit) along with some others. Can you guess whose blog they might refer to?
- Be the best aggregator with minimal fluff and maximum coverage
- Educate people on the philosophical foundations and practical reasons for liberty
- Make the Brady Campaign the social equivalent of the KKK
- Mock the arrogant, the pretentious, and the criminal
- Have no shame but shame those that need it
- Proselytize the shooting sports and self-defense
- Preserve our future through knowing our history
- Politics are complex so explain and enable people to be effective
- America’s most aggressive defender of firearms ownership (from an existing website–guess who)
There might be multiple mission statements for a given blog but with more you increase the risk of not being able to succeed in any one of them.
Think about it. And just because I might have suggested something you think was for your blog doesn’t mean you can’t tell me I’m way off base that your blog is about something entirely different. My perception, my error.
This one’s my favorite, “Make the Brady Campaign the social equivalent of the KKK.”
Not only is it extremely amusing the way you and your friends work so hard to demonize the Brady Campaign, but it’s also extremely ironic that many of the ones who do this the loudest are secret admirers of the KKK. Or do you claim that the gun-totin red-neck racist is a false stereotype? Aren’t there many White Brotherhood and Aryan Nation types among the gun owning public?
I understand that in a show like that you can’t always say everything you’d like to. To me, you’re one of the most reasoned voices in the RKBA hoploscribe blogworld. This is my second time around in actively exercising my Second Amendment rights. The stakes are pretty high, not just for gun rights, but the whole damn thing. I’ll consider what you’ve presented here.
On a related note, I’ll be attending the GRPC this year. I know you’ve been a past speaker. What should I expect at this event? And should I identify myself as a blogger? In that regard, what kind of reception should I expect? Thanks very much.
Mikeb:
I’m sure Mr. Huffman is massively amused by your comment, and could do a much better job of fisking than my feeble attempt, but your ad hominem statements are so typical of anti-civil-rights persons that I couldn’t stop myself from commenting on them.
“Not only is it extremely amusing the way you and your friends work so hard to demonize the Brady Campaign, but it’s also extremely ironic that many of the ones who do this the loudest are secret admirers of the KKK.”
In one fell swoop you’ve attempted to paint with an incredibly broad brush every single supporter of the civil right (as stated in the 2nd Amendment) to keep and bear arms. Simultaneously, you’ve conflated proponents of this right with racist groups vehemently opposed to civil rights. This glaring contradiction, all in one sentence, appears to escape you.
Can you be so ignorant of the history of gun control that you are completely unaware that the vast majority of gun control laws are racist in origin? That they were passed largely in order to keep black Americans “in their place” after the Civil War?
This is so thoroughly documented that one can assume only that you are either lacking in mental acuity, or are simply ignoring history. Unfortunately, the difference between “stupid” and “evil” is hard to discern because they lead to identical outcomes.
“Or do you claim that the gun-totin red-neck racist is a false stereotype?”
The stereotype probably had some truth in its origins, as do many other stereotypes. Are you going to continue using stereotypes? Jews as money-grubbers, perhaps? Blacks eating fried chicken and watermelon? Somehow I’m sure you’ll find these stereotypes offensive, so why is it that you feel that stereotyping gun owners is acceptable?
In any case, that stereotype HAS become false. Given that there are nearly as many firearms in the US as there are citizens, the overwhelming numbers of gun owners (safe, responsible human beings) simply cannot be “gun-totin red-neck racist(s)”. Take myself as an example…college-educated, professionally employed, northern-state urban dweller…and civil-rights supporting gun owner. I’d venture to bet that I represent a far more common demographic than your demonizing stereotype.
“Aren’t there many White Brotherhood and Aryan Nation types among the gun owning public?”
Simple answer: No.
Slightly longer answer: As noted above, the vast overwhelming majority of gun owners are simply citizens (of every conceivable demographic, including male, female, White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, you-name-it) who own firearms. We own them for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, target shooting, sport shooting, varmint control, hunting, long-range shooting, competition shooting, dangerous animal control, just-plain-having-fun-plinking, and so many other uses I’m not going to try to list them. The number of gun owners who fit this second stereotype (and I note how much your comments use stereotypes, rather than facts and data) is vanishingly small. The ONLY reason that folks of your ilk notice it is that it is constantly trumpeted by the lame-stream media whenever given the chance.
Does the media (or you) notice when my wife and I safely go to the range for a morning of rifle and pistol shooting?
Does the media (or you) notice when I safely carry my pistol all day, every day, for years, without incident?
Does the media (or you) notice when I safely take a whitetail for my freezer?
Of course not. The lame-stream even refuses to report the huge number (approximately 2 million per year, according to Kleck) of successful defensive firearms uses, simply because most of them end with no firearm being discharged. Even when firearms holders stop a potential massacre, the lame-stream steadfastly refuses to report it.
You can continue to attempt to demonize civil-rights proponents with these stereotypes, but all you are doing is pointing out a complete absence of any actual data to support your arguments.
#1 must be SayUncle, #3 is Joe Huffman.
Complete fail on the rest.
I shall make some guesses:
1. SayUncle
2. The Smallest Minority
3. Joe
4. Tam
5. Robb Allen
6. Gun Nuts
7. Uh
8. No idea
9. NRABlog.Com?
7 and 8 were hard for me to find just one blogger that fit the mold.
The first is Instapundit.
#2 is The smallest minority and The munchkin wrangler http://munchkinwrangler.blogspot.com/2007/03/why-gun-is-civilization.html
Well, since other folks have more than handily dealt with the resident troll, I have this to say: what if my answer to “What is my mission here?” is “To have fun, write what I want to, and have a cheaper therapy outlet than a shrink”?
🙂
Mikeb; Wow. Put a flaming bag of poo in front of you and you’ll step and roll in it every time.
Yes; Fascists, communists, socialists, the KKK et al, had and do have guns. They also advocate gun restrictions for most everyone else, because they’re, you know, socialist/statist scumbags. Get it? No, I suppose you don’t. One has to wonder how long it will be before you realize, or whether you ever will realize, that racist organizations are, and historically have been, predominantly leftist in their politics. Hope you like the company.
Here’s the problem you’re facing; you won’t find the proverbial “rest of the story” about these racist/leftist groups and political parties unless you dig for it. That requires effort, and very few people will put forth effort to challenge their own beliefs. We’ll see how much investment you have in your current, provably wrong beliefs.
We can start with the fact, which you’d already be aware of had you read these gun bloggers for more than a post or two, that American pro RKBA activists and bloggers are typically huge advocates of The American Principles of Liberty as put forth in the Declaration of Independence– that all Men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights…
The Bolsheviks, Progressives, Marxists, Nazis, Fascists, the Eugenics movement, KKK, Neo Nazis, Democrat Party, much of the Republican Party, etc. (i.e. Leftists) did not and do not believe in these things. The right of the individual to keep and bear arms is a decidedly Equal Rights concept at its very core, coming straight from the Founding Principles of this republic. The description of the gun as “The Great Equalizer” is a good and proper one.
Your attempts at smear are the sort of thing that might have worked 20 years ago, when our only source of mass communication was the Big Three networks and the big newspapers, but nowadays your behavior is transparent and just silly, due to our accelerated access to information.
I will allow that you may in fact be a staunch pro RKBA activist, posing as an anti to make the antis look ignorant and lame. It’s something I might do (we have outed a few anti-rights activists doing the same to us). In that case, Thank You. You’re doing as well as could be expected, given that your mission is to appear to support something that’s entirely stupid and wrong.
I’m not painting with a broad brush and I’m not trying to smear anybody. Wouldn’t that describe better the attempt to “Make the Brady Campaign the social equivalent of the KKK?”
I know most gun owners are good guys, I’ve never disputed it. But what I also believe is “most gun owners” means about 90% of you. It’s the small minority, who are quite numerous given the overall numbers, who cause the problems. But rather than police them yourselves, or help the rest of us police them with proper gun laws, you deny their very existence and do everything in your power to enable them – I’m talking about the 10%.
These are the ones feeding the criminal world with guns and turning criminal themselves. When added to the already established criminal world, we’ve got a serious problem.
Mike, you’re really impressed with that 10% number you cooked up. It was based on just crude speculation, and the number sets you choose end up counting people multiple times, and failing to take duplicity into account.
We pointed this out when you posted it…you ignored any reason and just continue to repeat it.
You kinda remind me of the kid in Middle School health class who when he heard that the HIV virus was killed by rubbing alcohol he declared that people should just drink rubbing alcohol and it would end the AIDS epidemic. He them professed how surprised he was nobody else had thought of that.
He was so high on himself even when we pointed out reality to him he wouldn’t hear any of it.
He shovels fish down at the docks last time I saw him….
If this were a contest Caleb would have won it.
7. I was thinking of Clayton Cramer.
8. I was thinking of Snowflakes in Hell.
9. This is JPFO.
Other people came up with some good matches but not what I was thinking of.
In retrospect, those three make perfect sense.